Alex Critchley Email and Phone Number

Alex called to the bar in 2023, having previously practised as a solicitor in the family law teams of two leading multidisciplinary law firms. He qualified as a solicitor in Scotland in 2016 and in England and Wales in 2020.Since calling to the bar, Alex has developed a busy and varied practice in predominantly family and child law, primarily dealing with the financial consequences of separation and divorce, including nuptial agreements and maintenance, but also contact, residence, relocation, permanence and adoption.Alex also has significant experience of unjustified enrichment, education, contract, trust and succession law, including section 29 claims.Alex is particularly well instructed in cases having an international (including intra-UK) connection, often advising on matters of applicable law, jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement. He has been instructed in several petitions under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, including a reported decision JL, Petitioner 2024 Fam LR 26.Alex holds a doctorate in private international law from the University of Tübingen, Germany, which was awarded with distinction. His doctoral thesis ‘The Application of Foreign Law in the British and German courts’ was published by Hart/Bloomsbury in late 2022. He has taught private international law at the University of Edinburgh for several years and will continue to lecture on the course in the upcoming academic year.Alex was recently appointed as an editor for Greens Family Law Reports and Litigation Styles. He is an editor for the Butterworths Scottish Family Law Service, with responsibility for the section ‘International aspects of the law relating to parental responsibilities and rights’. He has published numerous articles covering a wide range of family law matters, including in Scots Law Times and Scottish Private Client Law Review. He co-authored the Scots family law section for the International Comparative Legal Guide for 2022 and 2023.Alex is a member of the Faculty of Advocates’ Civil Procedure Committee, the Advocates’ Family Law Association, and the European Association of Private International Law.Alex speaks fluent German and conversational Italian.